The -- Mostly -- Desert Scene

This is actually the picture that my friend suggested I try converting to B&W. The original color image is in the Coronado Trail post below. It didn't convert directly to black and white very cleanly, because the mountains didn't have enough contrast. So first I did some cropping and color adjustment (mostly in the blue pallette), giving this picture of the clouds over the Catalina mountains:


Then I removed the color saturation, giving this image:


I also tried just making the color more subdued, giving this look:


I think the last one is pretty interesting!

A friend suggested that I try some desaturating the color in some of my pictures, making them black and white. I had one from the top of the Mogollon Rim that I thought I'd play with tonight. Here you can see the original color picture, and the cropped black and white result. What do you think?

When we returned to Tucson, things were NOT in their usual condition. About a mile from our house, there is an overpass over the Rillito river. Here is a picture of the river in its normal state, taken last January:



Yes, that is a Tucson river. There is usually no water in the "river" out here. Notice the trees in the riverbed here.

Here is a picture of the Rillito as it appeared on our return from the White Mountains:



Do you see any trees in the riverbed? Neither do I -- they are under water! One gentleman I saw while taking this picture said that he had never seen the river this full in the 30 years that he has lived in Tucson. Not only was the river full, but it was also flowing quite rapidly. There was a standing wave in the river near where I was taking pictures:



and the pylons for the bridge were taking quite a beating:

We did finally reach the Mogollon Rim when heading back to Tucson, though not the part of it I'd hoped to explore. We came back on the Coronado Trail, and it is REALLY twisty. At the top of the Rim on the trail there is an overlook that must be really spectacular on a clear day. Unfortunately for us, the top was quite foggy, so we didn't get to see it. Here is the view part way down:


Near the bottom of the descent from the rim, you can get a taste of Arizona rock formations. Here is a picture I took at one of the pull-off areas:


We had heard that Tucson was getting quite a bit of rain. A difficult report to give credence to, until we saw the north side of the Catalina mountains on the north side of Tucson:


Next time, I'll report on what we saw on the other side of the mountains.